Alert Issued Regarding Searches on Moscow Subway Bombing

Following twin bomb blasts at a subway in Moscow on March 29, 2010, security researchers are advising Internet users to be vigilant while hunting for news of the attack. It's also possible that BHSEO (black hat search engine optimization) campaigns as well as other malware attacks will take advantage of the tragic incidences.

As a matter of fact, prominent news agencies worldwide have already covered the tragedy resulting in widespread interest in the incidents among the common people. The public are therefore hastening to search for information online regarding the case's recent developments. Consequently, the topic has become an exciting search item on Google as also other search engines.

In addition, considering that videos related to the incident such as the one from BBC are already being provided, a readymade piece of supplementary news on malicious software pretending to be video recordings is also being circulated. Indeed, according to the security researchers, BBC encourages the submission of videos and pictures by the common man, but cyber-criminals can well misuse them to deliver bogus anti-virus (AV) onto end-users' PCs.

Remarking about the malevolent event, Director of malware Research David Harley at ESET stated that it was well known how the cyber gangs were clearly unhesitant in taking advantage of human tragedies for making profits [...]. Given that it'd be prudent to maintain caution while clicking on Web-links related to the topic, particularly those that came up near the top. That's because the cyber-criminals have mastered at manipulating ranks of search-engine results wherein their malicious URLs appeared among the initial results, Harley explained, according to a statement published by Softpedia.com on March 29, 2010.

Reportedly, ESET advised that users should surf on the Web only when a trustworthy anti-virus application, also up-to-date, is installed on their computers. Additionally, they must log onto only genuine media websites for information of the incident's latest developments.

In the meantime, in 2009, cyber-criminals similarly poisoned the Air France Flight 447 crash of June that year. As a result, online searches for news about the accident led to Web-links, which on clicking caused multiple diversions onto different sites. These sites, however, caused rogue anti-virus downloads that actually damaged people's computers.